I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to right hand, exteriorly mounted rear view mirrors for trucks and, more particularly, to an assembly adapted to be attached to such mirrors already mounted to a truck to permit the right hand mirror to be adjusted from the driving position to provide maximum visibility.
II. Description of the Prior Art
Modern day trucks, and particularly truck trailer combinations, are typically provided with externally mounted left hand and right hand rear view mirrors. The combination of the left hand and right hand rear view mirrors provide adequate rear view vision for the driver during many operating conditions such as, for example, highway cruising. The conventional previously known external mirrors for a truck are typically rigidly mounted to the truck by struts extending from the truck with the mirrors individually pivotally mounted to the struts. Thus, for different drivers, the mirrors often must be adjusted prior to the use of the truck.
Although such conventional exterior mirrors have proven sufficient for highway driving, they have been found to be inadequate when backing up the truck, particularly when the rear of the trailer is being moved to the right while the truck is backing up. During such a maneuver, the truck is skewed relative to the trailer and because of this the driver in his normal operating position receives only a view of the side of his trailer from his right hand exterior mirror. In order to compensate for this totally inadequate rear view right hand view, truck drivers have heretofore been known to adjust their driving position, crane their necks, and the like in order to obtain an adequate view of the rear of the trailer. Needless to say, such actions and movements by truck drivers are not only difficult for the truck drivers but also distract the truck drivers, thus creating a safety hazard.
There have, however, been a number of previously known mirror actuator assemblies for converting a stationary exterior mirror to a mirror adjustable from the interior of the vehicle. Such mirror assemblies, however, suffer from a number of common disadvantages and thus have not enjoyed widespread acceptance or use.
One such disadvantage of the previously known mirror assemblies is that the mirror is initially rigidly attached to support struts by mirror clamps. Conventionally, each mirror clamp comprises a brace having an aperture through which a threaded pin attached to the mirror extends. A nut threadably engages the pin so that, upon tightening, the mirror is secured in position on the clamps and locked against rotation. If the nuts are left "loose," they soon undesirably further loosen due to vibration from the vehicle.
A still further disadvantage of these previously known mirror assemblies is that such mirror assemblies were not readily adaptable to a wide variety of different types of mirrors. For example, some prior known mirror assemblies could only be connected to mirrors having vertically extending support struts while others could only be connected to a horizontally extending mirror strut. These previously known mirror assemblies also lacked a simple, yet effective, means whereby the initial, unadjusted position of the mirror could be preset.